CRETE - A Year in Review

Hey Mugs, I'm an Insurance Agent also (Health Broker - but I'm being activated for 1 year with the Marine Corps Reserve). There is a HUGE difference between being an EMPLOYEE of a Trucking Company and a 1099 Contractor with an Insurance Carrier.

I understand your point, but methinks the trucking company WILL come out on top in this one. Perhaps you could drive for another company for a while, grin and bear it, and re-apply to Crete at sometime in the future? You might try KLLM, I've heard good things about them.

 

FYI a "civilian" can drive 65 in Arizona in a 55 and you get a ticket for "wasting a finite resource" - and it doesnt even go on your MVR, and no points:

"28-702.01. Urbanized areas; waste of a finite resource; civil penalties
A. If the maximum speed limit on a public highway in this state is fifty-five miles per hour, a person shall not drive a motor vehicle at a speed in excess of fifty-five miles per hour on that highway. If the speed at which the person is alleged to have driven as provided in section 28-707, subsection A or the speed at which the court finds the person drove is sixty-five miles per hour or less, the offense is designated as the waste of a finite resource and is a civil traffic violation subject to subsection B of this section.
B. If a person is found responsible for a civil traffic violation pursuant to subsection A of this section:
1. A department or agency of this state shall not consider the violation for the purpose of determining whether the person's driver license should be suspended or revoked and a court shall not transmit abstracts of records of judgment for the violation to the department.
2. An insurer shall not consider the violation as a moving traffic violation against the person for the purpose of establishing rates of motor vehicle insurance charged by the insurer and shall not cancel or refuse to renew a policy of insurance because of the violation.
3. The civil penalty shall not exceed fifteen dollars plus the penalty assessments imposed pursuant to sections 12-116.01 and 12-116.02.
4. A report shall not be made under section 28-1559, subsection B.

NOW...

Please tell me that if you could drive 65 in a 55, for a $15 ticket with no points, no MVR report, that you would not do it.... I did it for 20 years and averaged maybe one a year...

 

Knight, we drive for Marten Transport. They aren't too bad.... We chose them because they have APU's on all their trucks.... If Crete didn't tighten up on us over idling, we would have stayed.....

 

Ok, I was just curious, your always on the west coast. I almost picked Marten because they have a good rep on the road, but I'm not a fan of refers (unless I have to). Enjoy your APU and Drive Safe, plus you probably get home quite abit more then here at Crete!

 

I was an EMPLOYEE of MetLife, not a broker - for 21 years - but that has nothing at all to do with the point I was making.

The point I was making is that that a misstatement on an application is not a "lie", (ie its not fraud), if the information you provide is "true and correct to the best of your knowlege". It's as simple as that.

 

The application asks for information that I "know of" - and I gave them what I "knew".

Crete needs to "man up" and say to applicants:

"we have more applicants right now than we have positions available and we are being VERY selective. Even if you are accepted, you may have to wait 4-6 weeks for a trainer"

instead of:

"Don't worry about those tickets from beyond 39 moths ago, your appication looks great. Plan to bring plenty of extra cloths to our orientation since you'll leave there with a trainer..."

I am not one bit sad Crete didn't approve me, and that God's honest truth! Because from the sounds of things, I would have wound up having to take a job elsewhere anyway!

They're messing with peoples lives and families here, and don't try to tell me that managment doesn't know this crap is going on in the recruiting department... They know what they're doing, and their "mottos" are "just words".

It's no surprise really, it's hard to find an honest company to work for, and its getting harder every day.

 

Two words:

Owner Operator

 

Since you are in the same generation I am, I'll ask - Do you remember Schleprock (from the Flintstone's spin off cartoon...Pebbles and Bam Bam) He was the guy that walked around with the hat down over his eyes and a dark cloud following him around with bolts of lightening zapping him once in a while. 'Whoeis me' was his favorite saying. That is me... If bad luck is going to happen, it'll wait for me to show. In fact, that light at the end of the tunnel is most likely the bullet train!! I swear my family is cursed.

I checked the website, just in case I was mistaken about the days they paid. It shows only 3. And I don't blame Walmart at all. They went out of their way to treat us good over there. I blame our company. It use to be one of the things you could count on was the payroll....Hope it's a fluke.

It seems as though many drivers miles pick up after the 6th year. (that's when your profit sharing hits 100% vesting...so they have to give it all to you when you leave) I don't think I'll be able to afford another year like this, and they say the economy isn't going to bottom out until sometime in mid-late '09. I spoke to a driver in Indy that has been with Acklie 22 yrs. He said he use to be with ETC(Easy Trucking Company, another Acklie 'has been' company like the former HTL) When I asked him how it made him feel to see the direction this company has gone... His response...with a very disgusted look on his face... DON'T GET ME STARTED, YOU'LL BE HERE ALL DAY.. He was within 5 or so years of retirement... and his word were - maybe, 5 yrs now...Seems he wasn't too happy with the way Acklie's bank has been hitting him with ooodles of charges for managing his retirement transactions plus the drop in the stock market hurt him big time. (I have no idea what goes on there...I know I will never live long enough to retire, so I don't invest/deposit in any retirement plans)

And averaging 10k a month won't get you your raise. In fact will probably get you written up for being unproductive. That's only 2500/wk. To achieve the 121k pay raise amount, you need to do a little better. When I started they wanted you to turn at least 2750/wk... Those were the days... I haven't seen that in years. I was actually showing a little higher average than the 9800 the terminal manager said her computer shows, but not by much.

Best o'luck to ya' Laddie

 

I went to work with LCT in okahumpka fl. to get some recent time back in, then moved to crete on the shaffer side.

I think the wife wants me to go back there, She said least u can put a power inverter in up to 2500w i think it was (they will install for you for free)

fridge an microwave in, fix your truck up as you want. they let you run longer to build up days off,more then 4 what crete only allows not matter how long your out.
Like i said it wasnt bad,i kept to myself most of the time, loads were ok for me i pulled alot of tyson until i went to team and did the flower thing. Did alot of broker loads also
The only thing is the team drivers get the tripacs over solo driver (stupid team drivers dont sit as much) no optimized idel, But id say 99% of there trailers are new and they are tire freeks so dont worry about bad tires.. Hope this helps GL

 

I heard we lost cocacola in auburndale... I take it we got some back because i've been sitting here for 7 hours now waiting on 1 skid to come off the product line.. and to think comming off my hometime with a 1100 mile run was looking good...lol



I hope this helps ya alittle supersnackbar knowing were gettin accounts back